MONDAY, 12.15PM:
ITALIAN bidder Aeroporti Di Roma became the unexpected strategic equity partner of the Airports Company of South Africa when it paid R819-million for a 20% stake in the local airport management on Friday.
Commentators believe ADR paid 40% more than rival bidders Britain’s Airports Authority (BAA), Amsterdam Airport Schipol, and a joint bid by Frankfurt and Montreal, which are thought to have offered between R500-million and R600-million.
ADR’s offer has been well received by the ACSA, as the R819-million sale values the company at R4,1-billion, more than double government’s estimated R2-billion.
Some of the other bidders, however, appear annoyed that the bid was won on price alone, after the government emphasised it would consider a range of issues, including skills transfer, increasing non-aeronautical revenue, and meeting information technology needs, in deciding the winner.
Despite this, Matthew Holt, director of government transaction adviser Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, said the decision to select Rome on the package it offered had been made after looking at “a range of issues including price and value”.
“[BAA is] not in the business of planting flags on maps just for the sake of it'” a BAA spokesman said. “A higher bid would, in our extensive experience, have been unrealistic.”
The government announced at the weekend that 10% of ACSA’s shares will be sold to the National Empowerment Fund, and a further 9% to employees in terms of the unbundling agreement.